Do-Re-Meet me at Farmin Park

Suzuki String Academy and City Beach Organics team up to present outdoor performances of The Sound of Music

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

The hills are alive with the sound of music — the hills being the rolling grass-covered knolls of Sandpoint’s Farmin Park, and the music being The Sound of Music, thanks to an upcoming pair of performances Sunday, June 11 from Suzuki String Academy.

A cast of 25 local actors, singers and musicians will bring the iconic story of Maria and the von Trapp family to life during two family-friendly shows at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The gates will open an hour before curtain and attendees are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets. Tickets are $15 for adults, $7 for youth and free for children ages 2 and under. Find tickets online at suzukistringacademy.com/events, or purchase them at the gate.

According to Suzuki String Academy owner and instructor Ruth Klinginsmith, this is the academy’s first musical play.

piano accompaniment,” she said, naming some of that local talent as choreographer and director Chika Orton; costume designers Cora Johnson and Marianne Wall; and Sam Cornett — playing Captain von Trapp — contributing his sound and prop expertise.

Klinginsmith said each performance will be a little over an hour long and include all the fan-favorite tracks from The Sound of Music — with a dose of audience participation encouraged.

The afternoon will also feature food vendors, including event partner City Beach Organics and more.

Klinginsmith said Suzuki String Academy hopes to facilitate an event in which families can enjoy local eats from the comfort of the Farmin Park lawn while taking in a high-quality show from local thespians who have been diligently rehearsing since February.

Suzuki String Academy’s The Sound of Music

Sunday, June 11; performances at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., gates open an hour before each show; $15 adults, $7 youth, children 2 and under FREE.

“We are working together with some amazing talent in our very own community to bring full production of Sound of Music with singing, acting and

Farmin Park, Third Avenue and Main Street in Sandpoint, suzukistringacademy.com.

“It has been a lot of work and time to bring all the parts together,” she said, “but we truly believe it will be an enchanting experience for the whole community, old and young alike.”

To learn more about Suzuki String Academy, which offers lessons for both kids and adults in a variety of instruments and regularly puts on performances for the community, visit suzukistringacademy.com.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

Hillstomp, Heartwood Center, June 9 Laney Lou and The Bird Dogs, The Hive, June 9

Portland, Ore.-based musical duo Hillstomp brands itself as offering “do-it-yourself hill country blues stomp.” This sound is accomplished with both literal and figurative recycling — of both buckets and cans, as well as backwoods American music of days gone by. If you have trouble conjuring this sound from memory, there’s a reason: Unless you’ve heard Hillstomp, you haven’t heard it.

With Henry Kammerer on slide guitar and John Johnson on buckets, Hillstomp has been creating country blues you have to hear to believe for the better part of two decades. So if you have trouble conjuring the sound of Hillstomp, there is only one solution: Catch the band Friday, June 9 at the Heartwood Center.

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8 p.m.; $15 advance, $20 at the door, youth tickets are $8. Heartwood Center, 615 Oak St., 208-263-8699, mattoxfarm.com. Listen at hillstomp.com.

When the Reader caught up with string-powered Bozeman, Mont.based quintet Laney Lou and The Bird Dogs at the tail of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2022, the band was touring behind its 2021 album Through the Smoke, and live shows were a rediscovered, much-welcome novelty. As we wrote then, The Bird Dogs’ shows were stacked with “wildly high energy, full of thumping bass lines and soaring fiddle solos.”

Fronted by guitarist and vocalist Lena “Laney Lou” Schiffer and featuring Josh Moore on guitar and vocals; banjo player and vocalist Matt Demarais; bassist Ethan Dema- rais; and multi-instrumentalist Brian Kassay on fiddle, mandolin and harmonica, the group defined itself as “alternative grass,” pulling in the threads of rock, folk and everything in between — all layered with stellar four-part harmonies. No matter what you call them, these Bird Dogs most definitely do hunt.

— Zach Hagadone

Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8:45 p.m.; $15 advance, plus taxes and fees; $20 day-of, plus taxes and fees; $20 at the door; 21+. The Hive, 207 N.First Ave., 208-920-9039, get tickets at livefromthehive.com. Listen at laneylouandthebirddogs.com.

The Wars of the Roses were a series of conflicts for the English crown between the noble houses of York and Lancaster between 1455 and 1487. Annie Garthwaite’s historical fiction novel Cecily explores that story through the lens of real-life Duchess of York Cecily Neville, whose Machieavellian machinations made her the mother of both King Edward IV and Richard III. It’s a ripping yarn that eschews the battlefield for a more nuanced, political portrayal of a complex, flawed and fascinating medieval character and her times.

Read Listen

Esperanto was created in the late 1800s by a Polish eye doctor who wanted the world to share a common language and therefore achieve peace. Weirdly, even if you don’t speak it (and almost no one does), you can still kind of understand it. A similar sensation occurs with the 1972 song “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” by Italian pop star Andriano Celentano. The unwieldy title is an entree to the lyrics of this earworm, which are almost entirely gibberish but sound like English. That was Celentano’s point: He wanted to create an American-sounding pop song, but without using Americans’ native tongue. Find it on YouTube.

Watch

Natasha Lyonne can do no wrong — and that goes double for the 10-part mystery-of-the-week series Poker Face, streaming on NBC-owned Peacock. Created by Rian Johnson (of Knives Out and Glass Onion), the show puts Lyonne front and center as a chain-smoking, beer-swilling, wiseass whose “gift” is that she always knows when someone is lying. This superpower gets her into trouble with a casino boss, and she goes on the run. While working odd jobs across the country, her builtin lie detector means she’s privy to all manner of crimes, which she solves mostly just by keeping a sharp eye and listening for unconscious confessions. Lyonne is a national treasure: Case closed.